food safety education training and education needs

Current Partners

Purpose

Food Safety Training and Education Needs

Goal of the Survey

• Improve resources available to Environmental Health Specialists who work with the retail-foodservice industry.

• Two objectives to achieve goal:– To identify opinions about food safety training of

Environmental Health Specialists.– To determine the food safety training needs of

Environmental Health Specialists.

Data Collection Method

• Online survey (SurveyMonkey) posted for six weeks– Food Safety Trainer (4 items)– Opinions about Food Safety Training (4 items)– Food Safety Training Needs (10 items)– Demographics (14 items)

• Recruitment– Respondents recruited by NEHA through online newsletter.– RFSC members also sent out announcements about survey

to their constituency groups, even if non-NEHA member.• Incentive to participate

– Drawing for one of three NEHA food safety manager training kits ($69.95 value)

Who Responded (N=344)

• Age – 25-44 years – 118 (40%)– 45-64 yrs --164 (56%)

• Gender – Male -- 157 (54%)– Female -- 136 (46%)

• Education – Four-year degree -- 183 (63%)– Post-graduate degree -- 89 (30%)

Credentials of Respondents

• State or local health department employee -- 190 (84%)• REHS or RS – 190 (65%)• Certified Professional – Food Safety (CP-FS) – 70 (24%)• Certification exams administered by respondents:

– National Registry for Food Safety Professionals® -- 42 (12%)– ServSafe® -- 91 (26%)– Prometric (formerly Experior Assessments) – 17 (5%)

Languages Spoken

• 47 respondents (14%) spoke a language other than English:– 19 Spanish; 6 spoke some Spanish– 3 French– 2 Chamorro (Polynesian language)– 2 Thai– 1 Chinese (Cantonese); 2 spoke some Chinese– Other languages “spoken” by one respondent

German KoreanPersian PolishRussian Sign LanguageTagalog Turkish

Food Safety Trainer• 222 (68%) provide food safety training to retail-foodservice

workers• Frequency of trainings

– No trainings – 19 (16%)– 1-3/year – 75 (22%)– 4-6/year – 44 (13%)– 7-9/year – 25 (7%)– 10-12/year – 11 (3%)– More than 12/year – 57 (17%)

• Top three target audiences:– Restaurants – 198 (57%)– Schools – 120 (35%)– Temporary food establishments – 62 (18%)

Opinions about Food Safety Training

• Most important characteristics of effective food safety educator:– Experience as trainer – 82 (27%)– Experience working in retail-foodservice industry -- 72 (24%)– Experience as government regulator – 46 (15%)– Degree in food science, environmental health, or related field

– 42 (14%)– Other -- 55 (18%) – connect and communicate with audience

• Best ways to make food safety training effective:– Using activities – 139 (46%)– Experience with retail-foodservice regulations -- 69 (30%)

Opinions about Food Safety Training

• Top three reasons workers do not attend training:– Workers think know how to handle food safely -- 172

(50%)– Workers not given leave by management – 151 (44%)– Not mandated by regulatory agency -- 139 (40%)

• Top three reasons managers do not send workers to training:– Training is not mandated by regulatory agency – 183 (53%)– Training is too expensive – 175 (51%)– Training focuses on generic food safety and not practices

specific to their establishment – 117 (34%)

Food Safety Training Needs

• Top five resources to effectively conduct training:– Photographs, illustrations, and graphics – 190 (55%)– PowerPoint slide sets – 179 (52%)– Video clips – 140 (41%)– Regulatory guidelines – 111 (32%)– Fact sheets – 104 (30%)

• 259 (88%) want to edit or modify existing resources.• Edits reported as important:

– Jurisdiction regulations – 208 (60%)– Agency contact information – 157 (45%)– Agency logo – 81 (23%)– Other – 51 (15%) – photos, hot topics, local needs

Food Safety Training Needs

• 278 (96%) think food safety materials needed in languages other than English.

• Languages needed:– Spanish – 273 (79%)– Chinese, simplified – 181 (52%)– Chinese, traditional – 165 (48%)– Vietnamese – 151 (44%)– Korean – 132 (38%)

Food Safety Training Needs

• Use of online resources to conduct training:– 68 (23%) have used.– 225 (77%) have not used.

• 201 (69%) completed professional development in past twelve months:– Training offered by a governmental agency – 157 (45%)– Sessions at a conference -- 148 (43%)– Online training – 106 (31%)– Training offered by a professional society -- 69 (21%)– College or university courses – 29 (8%)– Other – 15 (4%) – work updates, internet updates

Topics for New Materials

• Top five resources:– Food preparation practices -- 225 (65%)– Hygiene – 194 (56%)– Raw food handling practices -- 150 (43%)– Microbial Hazards – 129 (37%)– Ready-to-eat food handling practices – 129 (37%)

• Least needed resources:– Model forms and guides – 31 (9%)– Physical hazards -- 8 (2%)– Waste --- 5 (1%)– Water – 8 (2%)

How RFSC will use these results

• The intent of RFSC is to improve resources available to Environmental Health Specialists who work with the retail-foodservice industry.

• These resources will be available through the RFSC website.

www.retailfoodsafety.org

The Retail-Foodservice Food Safety Consortium (RFSC) was founded in 2004-2005 with the collaboration of five land grant universities and three science associations. The first roundtable was held in Las Vegas in November 2006. In September 2007, the Consortium received a grant from USDA-CSREES to enhance and expand its activities. The RFSC, through networking, information sharing, and strategic planning of activities, enhances the ability of food safety professionals to work more effectively with the retail food industry.

• Contains information about federal agencies, including industry-associated groups and other organizations involved with retail food operations.

• Current Content Includes:– Conference for Food Protection (CFP)

– United States Department of Agriculture

– U.S. Food and Drug Administration

– International Association for Food Protection

– Institute of Food Technologists

– Association of Food and Drug Officials

– National Environmental Health Association

– Food Marketing Institute

– National Restaurant Association

– President’s Food Safety Working Group

• Contains information about state agencies, state industry-associated groups and other organizations that are involved with retail food programs.

• Current Content Includes:– Retail/Foodservice Food Code(s)

– Retail Grocers Association

– Restaurant Association

– State Environmental Health Association

– Universities offering retail programs

– Food Manager’s Certification Requirements

– State Health Department

– State Department of Agriculture

• Contains specific information for each county about jurisdictional food handling requirements and retail food safety training opportunities.

• Current Content Includes:– Health Department

– Department of Agriculture

– Forestry Resources

Provides retail food safety information for educators, trainers and learners for a wide variety of topics in different educational formats, languages and audiences.

The website will allow you to perform specific searches for resources located on the website. By limiting your search criteria you will be able to locate resources on specific topics, for example searching for resources on “Allergens” and “Food” will return results that include at least those two topics.Adding in a keyword will allow you to search within the title, author and description of the resource. You can also limit by Topic, Audience, Types, Origin, Language and/or Location.

The Consortium is dedicated to providing food safety information to regulators, educators, and food industry professionals who serve the retail food industry. Materials that will be accepted for inclusion in this database should address food safety issues that are pertinent to the retail food industry.

For more information about Retail-Foodservice Food Safety Consortium contact the following.

ConsortiumBrian Nummer435-797-2116brian.nummer@usu.edu

WebsiteRichard Linton765-494-6481linton@purdue.edu